Henry Cany, the appointed illustrator of the accessories manufacturer Marchal, invented the famous stylized cat mascot

started like that, because he had a cat, and saw the similarity in the iodine lighthouse lamp shaped lenses

and he gradually shaped the cat into the familiar mascot - far easier to use in advertising decals and sponsor stickers on race cars

http://leroux.andre.free.fr/cany.htm  if you want to read about it.

He was also a damn good artist that did magazine covers and poster art for other companies